The battle between gods was going on beneath Arno while he started running towards the blooming fire. The earth was shaking and if the fight was lost he'd probably be dead along with everyone else, at best.

  But the battle had made a fire and if they survived they'd have to deal with it.

  So Arno and the wizard Merlin had run off to deal with it.

  It was easy to follow the billowing smoke towards the fire, though when they arrived at the end of the street they were faced with a conflagration that kept them from approaching.

  "So what do we do now?" Arno held his arm over his face, marginally protecting against the waves of heat.

  "We take it down. But let's get back first" Merlin stepped behind the building and when Arno followed him the heat became almost bearable.

  Merlin put his hand on the wall.

  "The wards are broken down. Otherwise the fire wouldn't have started at all. I'll try to patch it up. You find the sewer. We'll need water to finish off the fire." Merlin focused, closing his eyes while his hand kept the position on the wall. Arno could feel him working but quickly ran off to find the sewer.

  There wasn't anything close. Well ... there was. but it was too close to the blaze to get at it.

  But if it was close there it might be underneath them. He pulled one of the paving stones up. It came up far more easily than before, though he had practiced often enough.

  Through the chink in the barrier of the stones he called out, asking if there was water. He heard a response. He pulled hard and carefully like someone trying to unearth a carrot or dandelion root in one piece. A small bit of water came. Enough to fill his waterskin. The earth got in the way. He pushed the water back into the earth, pulling some of the dirt down into the sewer.

  Back and forth he worked until there was a finger's width of a hole. Pulling water through the hole was as easy as breathing and Arno had an idea.

  "(pull the water towards me)" A good chunk of his mana was drained but when he took a step back the water flowed along the ground towards him. He felt it follow him as he walked towards Merlin, who was sweating from more than the heat.

  "I got to the sewer. We should be able to get water."

  "Good. I've got the stuff beside the fire reinforced, but it'll burn all the wards within a few blocks but I think we'll get an hour or two to sort the fire out."

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Merlin looked at the trail of water. "Good work. Let's fight the fire"

  Merlin made a much more efficient use of mana to take up water. Apparently Arno training to get the purest stuff, for when he would apply specific amounts of minerals to the tea plants instead of whatever's there, meant his work was a bit more intensive. Not as much as trying to do it the other way without practice though.

  Merlin also undermined and collapsed buildings.

  "A pile of rubble is easier to put out." Merlin said as he send a muddy mass to flow over the downed building. Arno had his snake of water slap out the wave of embers. Besides those the undermining method worked well. It also made it easier to turn the land to farms, so Arno wouldn't disagree too strongly.

  They tore through building after building, the very act of destroying the fire becoming rote. The drain of persistent work was what eventually made them halt before they had finished. A line of ruined buildings should have kept the fire from reappearing behind them in the put out area.

  They probably shouldn't have gone into the burning streets and circled around, but doing so would have put them too close to the wards running out.

  So when the building that Merlin felled went the wrong way the already dried building behind them the fire spread and they were partially cornered. The hot ruins of a building recently fallen didn't seem like a safe escape route. Merlin hastily rose some of the paving stones which gave them a few seconds to think. Arno fell to despair.

  They were going to die, even if they won they would die and the fire would spread. They had to get away to save it.

  They HAD to.

  With the dry dirt under the paving stones at his fingertips Arno sent the little water he had down to connect to the sewer. It HAD to be there. Becoming lightheaded from his mana overuse Arno was able to make a small hole that connected, but it needed to be much larger and if Merlin could help he was sufficiently distracted already.

  Then the water called out to him. It wanted to help. Was he going mad?

  Better than dead, one would have to suppose.

  Faster than he could hope to do the hole he'd made was widened by water looking like a whirlpool and acting like a drill bit. the sides were ripped apart but when the ground became unstable and merlin fell in the water he was carefully carried to the bottom.

  The heat shriveled the hairs on Arno's head as the paving stones fell but before he could be set alight by mere heat alone a wave heaved over and threw itself onto both the fire and himself. The unending tide pulled him into the hole and he fell.

  There was a glowing fungus underneath stuck on various surfaces and as the waters brought Arno to the island in this great underground lake, a great cistern so old that the stone melted to look like a cave.

  Merlin was at the rocky beach and managed to make a small fire to see when Arno had been deposited.

  "Let's not make that mistake again."

  "yeah." Though as Arno looked at the unnaturally moving water it appeared to be looking back, asking how it could help. With this help and the reservoir they could make it through the fire pretty easily.

  Responding to Arno's thinking the water pulled itself into the hole in the ceiling like a tub with a plug pulled. Something else interesting might have happened but the water recognized the small fire Merlin was cultivating as the same thing to destroy.

  Easier some ways, but with new problems.

  My old one I recently picked up again

  A sci-fi meets fantasy (more fantasy at the moment)